Mary Ann Smalls
Administrative Assistant, The Career Wardrobe & Former Participant

Story By:  Carol Saline

Mary Ann started out a step ahead of most women transitioning from welfare to work. Although she’d been unemployed for ten years at home raising her three children, she had a working sister to help with her resume and an instinct that you’ve got to be properly dressed even when you’re dropping off an application.  “I just knew you don’t wear jeans to an interview,” she says emphatically. “My mom taught us you always had to have a pair of ‘all-occasion’ black slacks.”

When she learned of an opportunity for a paid internship at The Career Wardrobe, it sounded perfect. “You know we women like to shop,” she says laughing. She ironed her black slacks, bought a white shirt and borrowed a blazer and jewelry from her younger sister who was an administrative assistant. “The two of us got up early the morning of my interview and checked me out,” she says with her broad smile. “Nothing too tight. Pockets smooth. Everything flowing. I am making sure I’m looking good and feeling good and ready to sell myself.”  She was hired on the spot. “I’d get on the bus in the morning, see the other women going to work and think, ‘I look like them.’ That felt gooood.”

After a stint at a children’s retail store, she was asked back to The Career Wardrobe where her easy-going nature and cheerful personality make her a valued staff member. She’s especially good at relating to the clients because she’s not that far removed from having been in the same place.  “A lot of ladies—you’d be surprised how many—come in all fearful and say, ‘I never had on a suit before.’ Dress clothes scare them. Some have never been out of sneakers and sweats.  Well, I tell them, that’s gonna change. We get them all fixed up, they start twirling in front of the mirror and you should see the shock and surprise in their faces. You can just watch them building self-esteem. They get to feeling good about themselves. And I get to feeling good helping them.”

Mary Ann recognizes that you can change the way you look, but she advises women not to change who they are. “I tell our clients, just be yourself.  It’s fine to put on different clothes, but if you try to put on a different personality, it will fall in your lap.”

Photographed with a suit donated to The Career Wardrobe